Louisiana Senate favours casinos move to land
The state Senate approved the proposal to move riverboat casinos to land and passed the bill to the House after a 22-14 vote.
US.- The potential riverboat casinos move to land has taken a step forward after the state Senate passed the bill in a 22-14 vote. The proposal by Sen Ronnie Johns will now go to the House, where it will be discussed and sent to the Governor for final approval or rejection.
Even as the bill got two votes more than it actually needed to move to the House, its approval came after an intense debate over some of the bill’s provisions and whether they should be considered an expansion of gambling in a state with 15 riverboat casinos, video poker, a lottery, slot machines at racetracks and a land-based casino in New Orleans.
While Sen Johns, said that the bill doesn’t expand gambling, Louisiana Family Forum President Gene Mills admitted that it’s an ambiguous statement. “It does increase their square footage, their gaming area as well as their gaming opportunities, so its undeniably an expansion, not in the terms of licence, but in terms of opportunity.”
Riverboats are allowed to conduct gaming within 800 feet of the coast but may soon stretch it out to 1,200 feet. That way, Johns’ bill would enable Louisiana’s riverboats to be larger than the ones in Mississippi and bring in more revenue.
